The ever increasing need for telecommunication services has given rise to a variety of technologies. In each case, satisfying user demands has called for “provisioning” of the various systems that will be used to provide services. That is, for example, provisioning a communications infrastructure for a user may require switching certain connections, establishing billing records, establishing privileges and the like. Historically, provisioning systems has not been very problematic. That is, where only a few customers (i.e., telephone numbers) were initiated, it has not been very burdensome.
However, where demand for rapid deployment as well as increased service loads are increasingly in play, satisfying the demand has brought complication. For example, Primary Rate Interface (PRI) and Signaling Initiation Protocol (SIP) Trunk Service may be used to support up to 10,000 or more telephone numbers under one account. As one might imagine, provisioning the great variety of services now available to customers, in such large quantity, can consume considerable system resources which impede system operation.
Makeshift approaches have been devised to address this problem. For example, customer orders are often input to a spreadsheet, which is then provided as an input file for provisioning scripts. The scripts are then used for provisioning multiple downstream systems such as softswitches, directory servers and customer premise equipment. Provisioning such a large number of telephone numbers using manual processes or using traditional billing and order management systems presents unique challenges in terms of order co-ordination, errors inherent with manual intervention, time spent provisioning single telephone number at a time and waiting for response, handle provisioning rollbacks in case of errors and the like.
Thus, what are needed are methods and apparatus for simplifying provisioning in a high capacity telecommunications infrastructure, such as a Primary Rate Interface (PRI) and Signaling Initiation Protocol (SIP) Trunk Service. Preferably, the techniques minimize impact on resources used for system operation.